Wow! What amazing love, how could it be? That my Lord and Savior would die for me! Many people have blindly memorized John 3:16 as a child not really knowing the true meaning behind it. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not parish but have everlasting life.” The countless people that have this verse memorized usually did it to earn a badge, not realizing that those words could transform a life of despair.
As a Christian, I believe that this verse is one thing that has shaped who I am and how I want to live my life. To think that all I have to do is believe in this person (who gave his life so that I wouldn’t have to) and ask for His forgiveness in order to live with him is awesome. I try, in my everyday life, to follow these commands and read his word so that I may further myself in a relationship with him and become closer to being with him after my time.
He also gives everyone blessings while we are on the earth that just gives me an excuse to offer him more praise. For instance, we were in Missouri visiting my grandmother that was in the hospital. When we were heading back to Arkansas, we were called and told that she had had a heart attack. In trepidation, we returned to the hospital and waited out the storm. After this near death experience, she was to have a surgery to try to rid her body of the heart problems. About fifteen minutes after she was wheeled away, the doctor walked into the pale room to give us the news, and there was not a peaceful attitude in the air. Because the doctor had said that if he could do nothing for her, he would be right back. As we listened to the doctor to find out if my grandma would be with us much longer, the doctor began telling us that there was an act of God and that a simple medication would correct the condition. He had previously said that there was less than a five percent chance that she would live through the operation. As he explained this to us, he began to cry because he knew that it was a miracle. With God’s protection over my family, I have grown in faith and loyalty to Him.
Also, as stated in Ecclesiastes 12:13-14- “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.” In other words, if I do not live for God and believe in him, life is meaningless. If I just live life for myself and never do anything to honor God, I will not go to heaven, and my entire life would have been a total waste.
I want to live my life on earth believing in these words so that I will not spend eternity in the wrong place. I also would like to tell the world about these things so that I could live in heaven with my friends and my peers and so that they can feel the awesome love that their heavenly father has for them as I do. It hurts me to think that some of my closest friends and family might not be in heaven when they die. Nevertheless, I am not perfect either, so who am I to be their judge? I have witnessed for myself the great change that God has placed in other’s lives. I have seen people that would not even be caught dead near a church be dramatically changed and be on fire for the Lord. In my church, we have a facility that attends for part of the year called Teen Challenge. It is an organization that takes in adults and some teens that have been addicted to drugs or been a drunkard, puts them into church, and teaches them how to stay sober. These men that have been in church for a very short time, worship and praise the Lord with a happiness that I rarely see even in the ones that have been Christians their entire lives. Therefore, if these men can do it, I hope that I can get others around me to do the same.
As I think of the many rewards that God will give me if I live for him, it makes me love him even more. I have never heard of someone caring for something that they created so much that they would willingly die for it. That is what Jesus Christ did for every one of us so that we would not have to die for our sins, because the penalty of sin is death. However, by dying on the cross he paid that price of death for us.
What amazing love! How could it be? That my Savior would die for me!